A Short Story

In the early morning hours before the sun has given thought to waking, Frieda and Peter work clandestinely in the shadows of their abode with their vegetation. Under the cover to darkness when the rest of the masses are fast asleep is the safest time to cultivate that which is forbidden to grow. Peter once an electrician and honorable man in society and an excellent husband, was now working against the law and if caught would most likely be made an example of. Over some time he had scraped enough electronic parts together to make grow lights and in the recesses of his abode he grew the unimaginable. What had become of society, what was he forced to become? No one could know what he was doing, no one could find the slightest evidence of his growing of anything, so he and his wife of fifty years worked through the night tending their tender plants and covering up the evidence. By day they were old people—not too feeble, for that would warrant a one way trip to the hospital (?). Not too crazy for that would yield the same. They kept to themselves as much as the law would allow and hid their outlaw ways from friends and family until this morning. Kellie their great- granddaughter happened to be staying with them and she ventured out of her room and as she wiped the dust from her eyes she saw the alternate life of her Nanny and Popa. What are you doing? She asked. Startled and frightened Frieda jumped at the noise. It was too late to hide it, now what? With thoughts racing through their heads of this child now becoming privy to such sensitive information that could lead to their destruction “for the common good,” Frieda and Peter were at a loss for words. After a few moments passed, Frieda put her arm around Kellie and sat her down on the sofa. “What you see here can never be told or hinted at to anyone, do you understand?” “Yes, Nanny!, but what are you doing and what are those things?” “They are plants.” “What are plants?” Kellie had never seen a plant before. Never had her little feet felt the cool grass beneath them. Never had she seen a flower or a honeybee for that matter. They were living in the new world order. The Global Common Good. The fruits of Agenda 21. In the “land before time”, before the globalization of society when people actually had some semblance of freedom. Peter was an electrician as you already knew, and Frieda a stay at home mom, who ran the family farm. They had beef cows and dairy cows and pigs and chickens and turkeys, a bunch of cats and a couple of dogs and two children, Bonnie and Jackie. Life was hard, so they thought, but they always had plenty to eat and a keen appreciation for the land and the creatures that shared their homestead. When the “Dark Ages” started as Frieda liked to call them, as life from that point had all the semblance of the historical “Dark Ages”, it wasn’t long before Bonnie and Jackie were made an example of. By this time the farm which they grew up on and loved had been taken away by the authorities; Sissy and Liza their favorite Jersey milk cows had been shot before them, because it was unlawful to have them as it was against the law to have any of the animals. They never forgot the fear and the anger of that day, nor the smell of death. Bonnie and Jackie were a trouble to society as they refused to fall in line. They lived in a section of housing called “Fairhaven”, but they routinely called it “Auschwitz”. Finally the authorities had had enough and informed the neighborhood that they were “relocating them”, just them, not their families and they did. When they took Bonnie, they left behind her daughter Kimba . Kimba was raised by the state, as it was declared that Freida and Peter were dangerous folk. In time Kimba grew up and married Norman. A good boy who could read some and even add a couple of small numbers together. He was considered very intelligent in his circles. Kimba was worried about her aged grandparents and it was suggested by the authorities that Kellie spend some time with them. So in this early morning episode, Frieda sat with her arm around her great-granddaughter holding back the tears. Thoughts flooding her brain as she resigned to herself that her life was over, she would be “relocated” too. But what troubled her most is that Kellie saw what she saw and there was no undoing that, she would forever have the images of tomatoes and lettuce and beets seared in her brain. What would happen to her? If she dared to let mention of it slip, she might be “relocated” or worse yet “de-programmed”.

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